The journey from prime ministerial bookshelf to the honours list is an uncertain one. Tony Blair carried the Bible everywhere but never managed to honour the authors. Gordon Brown has his own chosen texts, including studies of Britishness. Two of their authors were rewarded this week, Linda Colley, now a CBE, and David Cannadine, now a Knight Batchelor - a title overlooking the fact the two are married. Although the new Sir David got a greater reward than his wife, Ms Colley's brilliant book Britons: Forging the Nation, 1707-1837, has deeply affected Mr Brown. He draws on her argument that Britain was always a political construct to suggest a new kind of Britishness can be created today. Sir David's books, like his wife's, are said to have made it on to the prime ministerial bedside table. In June he dined with President Bush - they ate a very British menu of Scottish salmon, Gloucestershire beef, Yorkshire pudding and English wine. While it would be wrong to lump two wide-ranging historians together just because they are married, both explore the links between empire and national identity.

The prime minister's near obsession with the creation of Britishness is often mocked, but his chatter about putting Union Flags in the garden is not lifted directly from Colley. The British athletes honoured this week should feel pride in being in the company of two excellent British historians. Whether or not efforts to revive Britishness can succeed, Ms Colley and Sir David have injected rigour into the debate.